Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi

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Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi (born January 19, 1926 in Hamburg ; † January 19, 2013 in Jacksonville , Florida ) was a German-American journalist and writer of German - Liberian origin.

Live and act

Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi was born in Hamburg in 1926 as the Afro-German son of the German nurse Bertha Baetz and Al Haj Massaquoi, who came from Liberia and studied in Dublin . His paternal grandfather was Momolu Massaquoi, Consul General of Liberia in Hamburg and the first diplomat from an African country in Germany. In addition, Momolu Massaquoi was King of the Vai people as Momolu IV. Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi was a direct descendant of King Siaka Massaquoi through his father and grandfather .

After living in his grandfather's villa, Massaquoi moved with his mother to a working-class district in Hamburg-Barmbek-Süd . Here he learned to speak Missingsch and Platt . He describes his childhood and adolescent experiences in Hamburg in the autobiography Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger! which was also made into a film .

In the time of National Socialism he suffered a lot from discrimination and prejudice. According to the National Socialist ideology , he was considered a non-Aryan and “racially inferior”. With the help of his mother and a few friends, he managed to survive the twelve years of dictatorship .

After the war ended, he lived in Monrovia in 1948 with his father Al Haj Massaquoi, and later with his aunt Fatima and his half-brother Morris. His Liberian family was involved in political intrigues, which is why Massaquoi left the country again and went to the USA, where relatives of his lived. He later became a US citizen . In his second book, Hänschen klein, went alone… he describes, among other things, his experiences as a GI in the United States Army and his life in the USA.

After studying, Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi was editor- in- chief of the Afro-American magazine Ebony for many years . He interviewed Martin Luther King , Malcolm X , Nnamdi Azikiwe , Muhammad Ali (with whom he was friends), Jimmy Carter and Walter Scheel , among others .

Massaquoi-Passage in Barmbek, view from Drosselstrasse

Massaquoi, who even in old age still spoke perfect German (with a Hamburg accent) and Platt, came back to Germany for the first time in 1966 and then regularly for readings and talk shows in Germany, which he still called his "home" in old age. With the companion of his Hamburg youth, the writer Ralph Giordano , he was friends until his death. In his autobiographical novel The Bertinis he appears in the character of Micky. His aunt was the songwriter and peace activist Fasia Jansen , three years younger than Hans-Jürgen and the illegitimate child of grandfather Momolu and a German consulate employee. Until the death of his aunt in 1997, who performed with songwriters like Hannes Wader and lived as a publishing employee in Oberhausen , Massaquoi knew nothing of their existence, although they both grew up in Hamburg.

He died on his 87th birthday. Massaquoi left two sons.

At the beginning of 2017, the new pedestrian passage between the Barmbek train station and Drosselstraße was named after him in Hamburg-Barmbek-Nord .

Works

  • Destined to Witness. 1999 - as German translation: Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger! My childhood in Germany. 1st edition, Fretz and Wasmuth Verlag, Bern 1999, ISBN 3-502-11940-6 ; Paperback edition: Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-596-18029-5
  • Little little boy, went alone ... My way into the New World. Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-502-10460-3

In October 2006, ZDF showed the television adaptation Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger! with Luka Kumi , Steve-Marvin Dwumah and Thando Walbaum as Hans-Jürgen in the various ages and Veronica Ferres as his mother.

In the USA, the actress Whoopi Goldberg has so far unsuccessfully advocated a theatrical version of the book.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Massaquoi dies at 87; wrote of growing up black in Nazi Germany. In: The Los Angeles Times . January 23, 2013.
  2. ^ House of Massaquoi. In: Manya Seisay. March 27, 2019, accessed June 17, 2020 (UK English).
personal data
SURNAME Massaquoi, Hans-Jürgen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Massaquoi, Hans J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH 19th January 2013
Place of death Jacksonville , Florida